23rd July 2007

Tenants Doing Yard Maintenance

posted in Care and Feeding of Tenants |

So, the last vacant rental house which I just rented to a

Tenants Doing Yard Work

girlfriend/boyfriend couple was rented with the stipulation that they take care of the yard maintenance in exchange for a break on the rent.

The other day, I had cause to go over there to replace a broken screen and the yard was completely cleared of brush and all the shrubs were trimmed. I almost fell over.

The boyfriend component of the couple works for a lawn maintenance company so I assumed that it would be a good match but I had no idea that it would be this good.

To top it all off, yesterday I got a call from the boyfriend asking if I would mind if he repaired the lawn sprinkler system. He mentioned that he could get the yard looking much better if the sprinkler system worked. Again, I started to feel dizzy at the prospect.

On a side note, when I entered the house, I noticed that it was cleaner that I had delivered it and I had had it professionally cleaned.

Time will tell if these tenants keep it up but for right now I think I’m going to lie down from the shock of it all.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Care and Feeding of Tenants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 3 responses to “Tenants Doing Yard Maintenance”

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  1. 1 On July 23rd, 2007, Nathan Hughes said:

    That’s great! There are so many horror stories out there, it’s good to hear of a tenant that goes above and beyond their basic duties!

    We require tenants of single-unit properties to take care of the yardwork without a break one the rent, but it’s not usually kept up as well as we would like.

  2. 2 On July 26th, 2007, Patrick said:

    Great to hear it worked out for you. As Nathan said there are so many horror stories out there you tend to err on the side of caution. I’ve only ever taken the chance once to let a tenant do some work for me. It worked out but I considered that my lucky shot and never bothered with it again.

  3. 3 On July 26th, 2007, Bruce said:

    Patrick,
    I’ve had other tenants ask to do work but I only allow it in special cases. For instance, I had one tenant who had a gutter and soffit company and wanted to replace the old gutters on the house because he said, “My friends can’t come over here and see these old gutters since I’m in the business and all.”

    I laughed and told him to go ahead. He was one of my best tenants though.

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